Category: Magical Words

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words – One thing at a time

Erin Penn

Photo by Desiray Green on Unsplash

One Thing At A Time

With the new year comes a hundred-dozen ideas of things that Are-Getting-Done-This-Year. And 2022 is compounded by two years of COVID burning down plans, but our energy is nearly adjusted to the “New Normal” so plans are beginning to look possible if not probable.

But All-The-Things isn’t possible. Multi-tasking, especially with the a world of worry still nibbling at the back of your brain, taking bits of energy and thought processing, produces suboptimal results.

Choose one habit to renew. Pick one thing to write. Concentrate.

A.J. Hartley, a New York Times bestseller, talks about “The Writer as multi-tasker” on Magical Words back on 1/7/2011 –

Review the article and some of the related comments.

WRITING EXERCISE: Choose one habit to renew or start.

Lots of good habits have been lost in the past couple of years. Now is a good time to flip through your old habits and dust one off to restart. Or start a new habit. Do it every day for a month.

Comment below on what you are trying to do and how it is working out.

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My Restart is this blog. So far, so good. It hasn’t been easy with all the other commitments, but I am so much happier when I am writing and creating regularly. 

Editing Rant: Likeable

Erin Penn

Photo by Taylor Smith on Unsplash

I read a book which if the book hadn’t been chosen by my book group, I would have jettisoned the book into the “abort” pile in chapter four, the verbal fight felt too manufactured.

More importantly, why I would have willingly swiped the book into my delete file is the main character (MC) took forever to develop one likable trait. Only during Chapter 9 – 25% through the story – did the MC show compassion and sympathy for another human being. Until then she used, lied, cheated, and manipulated everyone around her; only her tenacity in solving murder cases and drive to bring out the truth into the light of day etched marks on the “good person” side of the ledger.

Taking 25% of a manuscript is too long. Once the MC had showed emotional connection with the rest of humanity did I personally, as a reader, connect to her. And the rest of the book became interesting, the mystery engrossing. But until then, the only thing that kept me going was “book club.”

I’ve previous touched on how to make the MC engage the reader on 6/1/2017 (Magical Words May 13, 2014) “Characters Who Matter”. Engagement requires empathy and the MC needs AT LEAST two of the five following character traits: Sympathy, Jeopardy, Likability, Power, and Humor. And these traits need to introduced before Bad traits – like using and manipulating other people. Read the Magical Word post for the full discussion on this matter here: http://www.magicalwords.net/specialgueststars/darynda-jones-how-i-make-my-characters-unfogettable/

This MC wasn’t sympathy, those were the victims she gaslit to help her in her investigations. No jeopardy, she put others in jeopardy. Nothing to show why anyone would spend time with her, so likability is out. Power, yes a gun, but in general, the MC was a standard down-on-their-luck gumshoe. Very little power. Humor … the fights were very funny. That was it, good fun fights.

Too often people write the main characters as users, without showing the investment the MC made into the friendship before needing to use them. Instead the MCs come across as gaslighting, narcissistic monsters. Just because MC is the baddest dog in the pen does not mean any of the other dogs are going to play with them.

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words 11/26/2016

Erin Penn

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

It’s the end of 2021, and I feel like I did nothing. Which is wrong. But between COVID, the post office weekend job, and taxes getting started yet again during this mess, what I really want to do … write … has had very little time.

But … brushing self off … time to remind myself deadlines are good and start aiming for a few again!

“Quick-Tip Tuesday: Deadlines!” by David B. Coe (Magical Words 11/26/2016): goes over the basics.

1. Treat all deadlines as though they are real deadlines.

If you create deadlines for yourself, like a short story by March 31st. Deliver on it. Practice now so that when you sell, you know how to meet deadlines with everything else happening around you.

2. Keep deadlines honest.

Match the deadline to your capabilities. If you can write 3,000 words per week (over four days), then don’t say “a novel a month”.

3. Set intermediate goals.

A novel is too big a chunk for an easily achievable goal. You wouldn’t go – I’m going to get a doctorate degree in 10 years without setting a bunch of intermediate goals like attending classes and finishing courses.

Mr. Coe goes into more detail. Again the link is:

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words 3/10/2010

Erin Penn

95109212 © publicdomainphotographs | Dreamstime.com

Today I woke up before my alarm, waited for the alarm to go off, swiped so it went to snooze, daydreamed, swiped again, debated getting up, swiped again, finally got up to go to the bathroom. Debated crawling into bed again when the alarm went off, annoying me enough to get dress. I had laid out the clothes the night before.

***

I arrived at work on time.

So … too much description? Did I need to list all the swipes?

Or was there too little description? After all, eating breakfast, starting the car, backing out of the driveway, and the commute are all missing. They won’t have anything to do with the story or character development, but they do get me from bed to work. How else would I show that?

The magic of three stars for a scene skip.

The plot written by an author highlights the manuscript. Like extracting a story out from child. What did we do first? “We went to the zoo.” Then what? “We got cotton candy.” Anything else. “Monkeys!!!!” All that other stuff, grandma (or the reader) doesn’t need to know.

But how to indicate the scene jumps?

Magic three stars.

A great, great article on the topic is “Skipping Time” by Carrie Ryan (Magical Words 3/10/2011):

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words 5/18/2012

Erin Penn

Photo by Molly Blackbird on Unsplash

What Maketh a Monster?

In Magical Words, A.J. Hartley explained on May 18, 2012 how he created monsters for his middle grade series Darwen. Being middle grade, he avoided human monsters and, instead, dug deep into the traditional sense of monsters.

An Unsettling Hybrid – two things melded together when they shouldn’t be. Not chocolate and peanut butter; more like pizza and pineapple. The example he gives is Frankenstein’s monster assembled from multiple bodies. The monster doesn’t have to be evil (though it helps), the creature just needs to be feared – troubling our human sensitivities.

And, for Mr. Hartley, it can’t be familiar. Vampires have become habitual. Shifters typical. True monsters make your stomach drop and twist because they are wrong, wrong, wrong. Yet one thing, one horribly right thing, puts them in this reality.

 You can review more on the topic here: (and remember to read the comments for additional ideas)

My take-away is monsters, even human monsters, need something unsettling about them. What makes them a danger to humans beyond simple “they could kill me”? What about being around them makes the human brain skitter and squeal “not right, not right, not right”?